That Damn Old Helmet
by LadyMarissaGarmadon
Summary: Months after Willow is home and she explores the old attic of her parent's home. While playing with her older siblings' old toys, she accidentally knocks over a newer looking box. Garmadon comes home to find the box's contents painful to look at.


Willow rummaged through the boxes of things in the attic. It was November, two months after she was reunited with her family and discovered she was a ninja in training. Though it was still strange beyond belief to live in a nice, warm home, she accepted it, even though she still had the nightmares.

She tripped on a loose floorboard and one box went sailing out of her hands, landing on old, lavender window drapes. She sneezed and coughed, brushing the flying dust away. "Man… why do I have to look through all this junk? Just to find old clothes from Yasmin and Violet…" she grumbled.

She knew the real answer though; she wanted to simply explore. It's all she'd known. The little girl spent day and nights finding places to hide and explore whether for shelter, her own entertainment, or to hide from unwanted eyes.

"Willow honey, are you okay!?" she looked up, hearing her mother's voice.

"Yea momma!" Willow stuck her head down from the hole in the ceiling.

Misako was looking up at her in the hall, "Okay if you're sure…" she raised an eyebrow. "I promise I'll take you to buy more things later okay? You don't _have _to look for your sisters' things you know…"

"I know…" Willow nodded and went back up. "Tell papa to come up and help me when he gets home?" she asked, her voice still audible from the floor between them.

"Sure thing, he'll be happy to look through everything again I'm sure!" Misako walked down and exited the hall, going downstairs.

Willow smiled and started digging through things once again. "Man I wish Derren was home… he'd find this stuff cool," she giggled and blew off old polarized pictures.

She smiled; it was her parents' wedding picture. She pressed her pale lips together and stood up, placing the photo on an old dresser that was obviously very old as well. She brushed her dusty hands off on her pink denim jumper and continued looking through boxes and bins.

She slid a wooden closet door over and tilted her head. It was her mom's wedding dress still in great condition, not even yellowing on the edges. She stuck her head in to look for more things.

She stood all the way up and looked around smiling. If this was going to take forever, why not have some fun? She opened more boxes and found old toys from when he brothers were kids and dug through it. She pulled out a plush green and brown bear and smiled. "Must be Lloyd's…" she laughed seeing it was green.

She stuffed the small plush in her large jumper pocket and continued digging through things. She found a dart gun in the bin marked "Yasmin and Violet" and looked at the names scribbled in black sharpie pen on the side.

"Boy my sisters must have been crazy…" she examined it. Yasmin and Violet were always off and away. They were always doing exploring jobs for the Ninjago Natural History Museum. Willow found the strange thing was they loved to play with dead things from sound of it.

She looked at the closet. On the top shelf was a box that didn't look as old like everything else. She took aim at it, planting an invisible target, and fired the darts.

The box tumbled off the shelf and fell on the floor, making a rather loud clang, "Oops… must be some old pots or… whatever…" she quickly ran over to it, sitting it upright.

She looked around to make sure Misako didn't hear too. "I wonder what this is…" she opened the flaps of the box and found an old samurai like helmet with a bone charm on it. "Oh wow this thing is awesome… I wonder if it was from a costume or something…"

She stood in front of the old mirror up there and put it on with a smile. She heard footsteps and looked to the opened hatch that led from the second floor to the attic. She smiled. "Dad?!"

"Yea Will, I'm coming," he climbed up. "Your mom said you were having some fun up… here…" he looked at his youngest child.

"Oh isn't this cool? Was it yours?" She took the helmet off and showed it to him. He wasn't saying anything at first which made her curious as to why that was. He seemed almost traumatized by the look of it.

Garmadon sighed, "I thought I told your mom to get rid of that horrible thing…" he shook his head almost in disgust.

"What?" Willow tilted her head, confused. "If it was yours, why are you upset about?" she blinked, looking at the dull helmet in her hands. "I think this is awesome!"

"Willow… remember I told you that when you were born, I was in the Underworld? How I was King of the Underworld?" he sat down on an old step stool. Willow nodded quickly and sat on her knees like it was story time.

How could she forget that story though? Her mother was practically in tears retelling everything about how she was born and the living conditions she was in. "That was the helmet I won in a battle with Samukai… the king before me… that's my helmet…" he pointed to it.

"I don't see why you feel so bad about it though…" she sat on the floor. "You aren't bad like that anymore… and even when you were… I wish I lived with you rather than in that dump called an orphanage…" she frowned.

"No… no you wouldn't have wanted to live down there with me… true your sisters were there and your aunt but… Amelia… oh that's a whole other story…" he sighed. It almost made him want to laugh.

"But dad… you aren't evil anymore…" She sat in front of him, saying it again.

"Willow you don't understand everything I've done in my life… that helmet is an ugly reminder of eight years of my life… even longer if I think about everything I did to my brother and your mom…" he stared at the helmet in her arms; looking at his own reflection.

Willow stood up and placed the helmet down on a cabinet up there. She hugged Garmadon, "I don't care who you were… you're my daddy who saved my life when you didn't even know who I was at all".

She was so innocent it wasn't even funny anymore. She was pure even though she grew up seeing probably some horrible stuff. "Well I appreciate that Willow," he patted her on the head. "I just don't want that old thing anymore though…"

"Hey Willow, I finished cleaning the kitchen if you wanna go now," Misako climbed, sticking her head through the attic hatch. She pulled herself up and then saw the helmet. "Oh…"

"Why didn't you burn that thing?" he quietly asked her.

She shrugged, hands clasped together, "I don't know… it gives off bad memories but I didn't think we should just destroy it…"

Willow held the object in her hands and went around and put it on her father's head from behind. "Hey! Willow," it fell forward, covering his eyes.

"I think you look cool in that helmet!" she giggled.

"Oh get out of here!" he spanked her as she walked past to follow Misako down. He looked at the dingy looking helmet and shook his head. "The things I do…" he tossed it back in the box and went down too.

He'd keep that damn old helmet. He didn't know why he would, but he'd keep it.

**So I saw this picture on tumblr someone painted and it was the helmet with Garmadon's reflection with his back to it in the metal. And came up with some idea, since plenty of people, whether fond of ocs or not, liked or thought Willow was cute... and I decided that Willow can find the helmet... **

**So... yep. I like to think Garmadon has secret anxiety attacks when he thinks about what he did... dwelling on negative memories and all... I know I do that... maybe even almost had one but tried not to freak out in front of his daughter... **

**Le sigh... my baby Garmadon... **

**Welp, I hope you found it interesting at least... I do admit I write these crappy little one shots I keep for just me... I might post a couple... **

**The story also represents Garmadon as me, and Willow is my mind/consciousness, and the helmet represents my unwanted memories of things I wish I can forget. I'm deep, I know... XP **

**Thanks for reading :) **

**~Mar**


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